POLITICO UTTERLY PERPLEXED AS TO WHY THAT NICE COULTER LADY WOULD WRITE A BOOK ABOUT RACE AT THIS MOMENT

Oh, look! Ann Coulter -- a Mitt Romney backer since before the Iowa caucuses -- is coming out with a book on race in America, and, well, Politico can't seem to imagine why Coulter has chosen to write on this particular topic at this time:

Ann Coulter's latest book -- "Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama" -- comes out on Sept. 25, just weeks ahead of Election Day, but it’s not the kind of tome you'd expect from the conservative firebrand.

Mitt Romney, for instance, isn't mentioned at all. And, although much of the 336-page book discusses President Barack Obama (and Democrats, generally), it also takes a trip down memory lane, exploring events in our nation's racial history as far back as the Civil War....

If "Mugged" seems like a slight diversion from Coulter's usual serving of conservative punditry on current events, Coulter admits as much in the book's acknowledgements, saying "the idea for this book struck me like a thunderbolt in April," and it was a rush for her to complete it and get it on bookshelves just five months later.

Gosh, what was the rush? And golly, why a book of this kind? Um ... let's see ... could Coulter possibly have wanted to get it out in time for some event or other? Perhaps an upcoming contest of some sort -- maybe one centering on a black person and a white person? Hmmm, let me think....

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Oh well -- at least we know the book will be brilliantly original:

... Coulter's "Mugged," published by Sentinel/Penguin Group USA, is an exploration of the idea that, as she puts it, "the entire history of civil rights consists of Republicans battling Democrats to guarantee the constitutional rights of black people."(Of slavery, Coulter calls it "a policy defended to the death of Democrats," for instance).

Democrats are the real racists? Gosh, I don't think anybody on the right has ever made that argument before!

Oh, and:

Obama's one-time pastor and friend, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, also figures prominently in Coulter's discussion of race and the Democratic Party.

Hunh? Who is this Jeremiah Wright person? I don't know, but he certainly seems to have said some controversial things! How on earth did Coulter learn of him? I can see she's done a lot of interesting and original research!

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Seriously, though, let's have a look at Coulter's research technique:

On the issue of current events, much of Coulter’s criticism of the president centers on his willingness to allow "others to make despicable racial smears on his behalf."

"As the New York Times described Obama's typical campaign strategy back in 2008: 'This has been [campaign manager David] Axelrod's career, an eternal return to Chicago and to the politics of race.'"

Want to see that quote in context? It's from this Times Magazine story, dated April 1, 2007:

We were in Chicago in January, and it was absurdly unpleasant outside, the sun hanging high above the wind and the chill like a taunt. Axelrod was on a man-in-the-street shoot, a campaign commercial for Axelrod's old friend and client Richard M. Daley, and the first scheduled interviewee, a retired Irish firefighter, had been mocking Axelrod's crew for dressing wrong. "You need the layers in this cold," he announced. "You need this wickywack stuff." ("Gee," Axelrod deadpanned, "I wonder if I'll be able to draw him out.") This is Axelrod's Chicago, the old ward Democrats, and he started bantering with the guy. The firefighter asked Axelrod about Obama: "Everybody's raving about him, this new black guy, but he doesn't have any experience. Not everyone's in love with him, you know." And the guy grinned, confrontationally, and it just kind of hung there, like race sometimes does in Chicago, somewhere between tolerance and menace.

This has been Axelrod's career, an eternal return to Chicago and to the politics of race.

That's the quote Coulter yanks out of context to make the point that Obama lets "others to make despicable racial smears on his behalf": a quote referring to David Axelrod being asked about "this new black guy" by a white firefighter, and apparently saying nothing racial in response.

But I'm sure when the distortions in this book are toted up, that won't even rank in the top hundred.